


Waiting

by AndelynKinsey



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: F/M, Gen, In game scene, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 19:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17229656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndelynKinsey/pseuds/AndelynKinsey
Summary: Link arrives to tell Anju he's found Kafei.  Together they wait.





	Waiting

**Author's Note:**

> I finished Majora's Mask for the 2nd time in my life and I had lots of feelings about the last thing I did before the end game. This was the result.

Waiting...

* * *

 

The room is larger than Link expected, two beds, a table and chairs, and a chest beside him.  Link feels guilty about accepting the money inside, but he takes it at Anju’s urging, her words lingering in his ears.

“You should take it and flee,” she’d said when he arrived.  “Even if the morrow comes, you’ve earned it and more.”

Then she’d sat on the edge of the bed, her hands folded.  Waiting.

Link scuffs his shoes on the floor, his stomach in a tight knot as the minutes pass.  Outside this room it’s quiet, and in the village it’s even quieter, only the bravest (or most stubborn, as Tatl said) remaining: the lead carpenter, the bartender, the postman, and Kafei’s mother.  All the others had fled, even the little dog in the square.

“Did… you said you were at the ranch earlier?” Anju asks, fidgeting with her dress.  

Link winces, remembering Cremia mixing the milk for her little sister, who was so excited for her first taste of Chateau Romani.  Cremia’s face was dark, and the smell of the milk was stronger than what he had in his pocket.  _Sleep with me in bed tonight_ , Cremia had said, her eyes fixed on the moon’s shadow outside.  Romani had smiled, agreed, then continued bouncing on her toes in anticipation for her glass of milk.

“Do you think they’ll be safe?”  

Link takes a breath, unsure of what to say though his silence seems to speak for him.  Anju sighs, her apron fisted between fingers.

“They’re far enough away.  It’s where my mother fled. They’ll… they’ll be safe.  The morning will come and they’ll be safe…”

Anju exhales slowly, sitting taller on the bed again, whispering to herself.  A prayer of sorts. Link doesn’t know the words, he only knows a little Hylian and less Termian, but he can recognize the tone and the way the words flow. He wonders what Goddess she’s praying to.

An ominous rumble breaks the silence, the building shaking and ground trembling under their feet.  Knick-knacks and books shudder precariously on the shelves, a few falling and slamming onto the floor.  Anju gasps, clutching the mattress she’s sitting on while Link tried valiantly to remain still. He falters, stumbling as the earth below him gives a violent lurch then stops.  The room falls quiet again, save for the sound of their frantic breathing.

“When did you see him? Kafei. W-Was it before sunset?”

“It was… just after it.”

“Where was he?”

Link hesitates, then sighs.  “Ikana.”

“ _Ikana_?” Anju breathes.  “How did… how did you get back so quickly? Why didn’t Kafei-“

"I tried… I tried to call out to him, offer my horse, but he took off running and I couldn’t catch him,” Link explains, knowing it’s a poor excuse.  He should have tried harder, he should have chased him and insisted, but he heard the Gibdos moaning and couldn’t leave Pamela and her father to their fate.  Once again, there were too many people to save and not enough time to save them.

Anju looks stricken, her face paler than it normally is as she presses her fingers over her lips.  She shakes her head and resumes her resolve, folding her hands in her lap once more.

“I’ve made my promise. I believe him, I’m fine with this.”

She nods, as though convincing herself of her words rather than Link, and begins to pray again, her lips moving fast though her voice is quiet.

“We can still go back,” Tatl says quietly in his ear.  Link shakes his head and she groans. “Now that we know he’s going to run off we can get the little girl earlier and make sure -“

"I’m not going back, not again,” Link says quietly.

“Why not? We’ve done it before and-“

"We don’t need to.  We can end this and save-“

"We can save them after we go back, too!” Tatl argues in a whisper.  “If we don’t hurry, that thing will crush everyone, including us!”

Link’s expression hardens, and he shakes his head, eyes flicking to the door then back to the still praying Anju.  If he dashed out of the room now what would it do to her? Only add to the anguish she was already in. If she was here waiting, he was going to wait with her.

“He’ll never make it,” Tatl says.  “He’s a man in a child’s body, he can only run so fast.”

“He’s more can do more than you’d think,” Link replies, knowing something about how Kafei must be feeling.  Child and adult were really not much different; muscle strength and bone length, growth of body and supposedly mind.  But Link had met some childish adults on his journeys as well as children with wisdom beyond their age. He knew better than to assume age would beget knowledge or strength, and he knew what it was like to be a stranger in your own body.  

The ground shudders again, the moon above them roaring as it descends.  Link stumbles and Anju gasps, but as the sound falls away another one takes its place.  Footsteps, quick ones. Ascending the stairs then stopping. Anju straightens up and Link tenses, then soon as she rises from the bed to investigate, the door opens.

Kafei walks in, sweaty and breathing hard, his violet hair a windswept mess.  Link breathes a sigh of relief as Anju leaps from the bed, her hands clasped around the mask that had been lying by her side.  She looks at Kafei and her eyes widen, looking him up and down with a confused expression before she falls to her knees. Kafei walks forward, looking Anju up and down as well.

“I... I have met you before,” Anju breathes, her eyes watering.  “What a familiar scent.”

Kafei steps closer, still studying Anju as she begins to cry.  “Do you remember? Long, long ago... We were still young. We made a promise... Didn’t we?” she asks. “The masks of the sun and the moon… We were to exchange them on the day of the Carnival of Time…”

Kafei nods and stands taller, bowing in his fiance’s direction. “Anju… I’m sorry I was late.”

Anju laughs, it’s broken and high pitched, tears leaking from her eyes and slipping down her cheeks.  “Welcome home,” she says, opening her arms as Kafei throws himself into them. Link can’t help but smile as he watches them embrace.

Behind him, Tatl giggles.  “They’re lovers, but they look just like a mother and child.”

Link nods, hoping once he stops the chaos that has enveloped this land, and the skull kid with it, Kafei will be returned to normal.  

The ground shakes again, almost as if on cue as Anju and Kafei present their gifts, the sun and moon masks, pressing them together to form a white mask with a soft engraving across the face.  Link’s eyes widen as Kafei holds it out to him.

“We have exchanged our oaths and have become a couple.  You are our witnesses,” he says. “Please accept this mask.”

Link takes it from Kafei’s hands, staring at the silver design on the front and wondering what he could do with this if he had the time.

“Link, please take refuge,” Anju implores.  “We are fine here.” She clutches Kafei’s hands, and he nods, expression filled with tenderness as he stares back at his partner.

“We shall greet the morning… together.”

Kafei sets his hand on Anju’s face, and they embrace once more as Link dons the rabbit ears and sprints out the door, heading not for shelter, but for confrontation.

“Do you think we can stop him?” Tatl asks as they round the corner and head towards the southern part of Clock Town.

“I think we  _have_  to stop him,” Link says, jumping onto the small platform and ascending the stairs to meet his fate, and the fate of everyone in the village, once more.  

  



End file.
